Stage set for 3-way races in Orange

O'Donnell takes GOP in District 21

A former top aide to Orange County Executive Ed Diana beat the Republican Party's endorsed candidate, and a first-term county legislator lost the Republican nomination for his seat to a Warwick village trustee in two Orange County Legislature primaries on Tuesday.

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By CHRIS MCKENNA

recordonline.com

By CHRIS MCKENNA

Posted Sep. 11, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By CHRIS MCKENNA

Posted Sep. 11, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

A former top aide to Orange County Executive Ed Diana beat the Republican Party's endorsed candidate, and a first-term county legislator lost the Republican nomination for his seat to a Warwick village trustee in two Orange County Legislature primaries on Tuesday.

Five of the Legislature's 21 districts had primaries, four of them featuring rival Republican candidates. In at least two of those GOP races, the candidate who lost the Republican nomination stayed in the race by winning a separate contest for the Independence Party or Conservative Party ballot line, setting the stage for three-way competitions with a Democrat in November.

In District 8, Legislator Dan Castricone of Tuxedo lost the GOP nomination to Warwick's Barry Cheney, but earned two other slots on the general-election ballot by winning Independence and Conservative contests, according to unofficial results.

In District 21, former Deputy County Executive James O'Donnell beat Goshen Councilman Philip Canterino for the Republican nomination and also may have won the Independence line, while Canterino beat back a challenge for the Conservative line. Write-in votes exceeded Canterino's total in the Independence primary, but the outcome was uncertain because the write-in names haven't been revealed.

With seven of eight election districts counted in District 14, James DiSalvo of Highland Falls was leading Konstantinos Fatsis in a contest for the Republican nomination, while Fatsis was ahead of the write-in tally for the Conservative line.

Warwick's Paul Ruszkiewicz won a three-way race for the Republican nomination and a two-way contest for the Independence line in District 3. Still uncertain is the outcome of an all write-in primary for the Conservative line in that southern Orange district.

In District 4, the only race with a Democratic primary, City of Newburgh Councilman Curlie Dillard beat James Thorpe III for the nomination.

In the only countywide election of the day, Kiryas Joel leaders appear to have succeeded in wresting the Working Families Party line from Democratic county executive candidate Roxanne Donnery by mustering write-in votes for another candidate. Donnery trailed write-in ballots with most election districts counted.

Irked by Donnery's longstanding criticism of and opposition to their water pipeline, Kiryas Joel leaders had forced the primary and registered new voters in the Working Families Party to rob Donnery of a ballot line that earned the last Democratic county executive candidate almost 1,800 votes.

Donnery, a county legislator running against Chester Supervisor Steve Neuhaus for county executive, had prepared for the possibility of losing that third-party line by petitioning to create her own ballot line, called the Had Enough Party.